The Four Essentials of Health

Chiropractic is the philosophy, art, and science of natural health care. It is based on the fact that the body was designed to be healthy, and to keep it's many systems in constant balance. This balance is called "homeostasis". Homeostasis is (essentially) the body's ability to adapt to it's environment (internally and externally). When this occurs, the result is health. But what happens when we cannot achieve balance? When we can no longer adapt to our environment, when we can no longer achieve balance, the result is dys-function, dis-order, and dis-ease. Thus, chiropractic is about restoring normal body function, so that it may once more achieve homeostasis and balance.

Health is something you are given at birth and it should be maintained throughout your lifetime. Unfortunately, we are never taught what we need for health and what specifically needs to be maintained. We are born with a genetic health potential. If we understand what can interfere with that potential we can avoid such interferences and keep it at its highest level. When we buy a brand new car, we get a manual to maintain it. This tells us how to make the car last the longest possible time and run at it's optimum potential with minimal problems. Yet, when children are born, there is no manual in the "glove compartment" to know when to "change the oil, rotate the tires, and get tuned up." In other words, we are not taught what to maintain or how to maintain it. To understand how to obtain our highest optimum health potential, we first have to know what the essentials of health are.
To understand the essentials of health, we need to understand the essentials of life. Many things could come to mind in different categories (physiological, psychological, social, etc.). However, in terms of basic physiological essentials for survival, we can name four. What makes these essential is that if any of them were to stop, you would die. If any of them were interfered with, your health would not be at it's optimum potential.

Food: is the fuel and building blocks for growth and reproduction of cells and tissues. It consists of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. If any of these were to stop, you would die. If their balance is interfered with, your health potential would not be at it's optimum. For example, if you ate high fat foods (french fries, doughnuts, etc.) what would be the possible condition of your arteries in 10-20 years? If you said more closed with fat, you are probably right! Result - lowered health potential.












Water: 75% of your body is water. It is used in almost every body reaction. If you stop fluid intake, you die. If you drink unhealthy fluids (caffeine, alcohol, pollutions, additives, preservatives, dyes, etc.) or not enough fluids, your body's health potential is decreased.













Oxygen: Oxygen is also used in almost every reaction of the body and is carried by the pulmonary (lungs) and circulatory (blood) systems. Interference to these systems could stop oxygen and result in death. We should exercise and breathe deeply to increase our oxygenation to cells. Researchers say that oxygen deprivation can cause almost anything from fatigue to cancer. If oxygenation is not at it's optimum, neither is your health potential.










Nerve Impulse: Nerve impulse is the most commonly overlooked essential for life and health. Nerve impulse is an electrochemical charge transmitted by the brain through the nervous system to the body. It is the life force that keeps us alive and "charged". All body function is dependant on this life force or brain impulse. Cells must be electrically charged in order to vibrate and function. If your brain stopped (generating these electrical impulses) you would die. In fact, in order to be legally dead, brain impulse must stop. If you severed the nerve to your heart, would it stop? How about your stomach, lungs, or hand? What if you just interfere with the normal nerve transmission? Would these organs and tissue function at their optimum potential?

If we look at our life from the time that we are born until the time we die, the body is in constant motion (even when at rest). The cells of our body are constantly dying and being replaced by new, healthy cells. Two and one-half million cells will die and be replaced every minute of your life. This is a normal process. Health can be defined as the ability of the body to replace the cells and tissue structures normally and consistently. There is an innate intelligence within each of us which creates and recreates us on a continual basis. In order for this process to occur, life force (nerve impulses) must be flowing throughout the body to all cells and tissues. It's medium is the brain and nervous system. The innate intelligence directs this life force to every cell and tissue of the body. When the life force is free of interference, the body is at it's maximum health potential. If the life force is interfered with, the body does not have the ability to recreate itself normally, and dis-ease results.